It's been years since I visited the Crescent Mines area. The road was really good back then, but I've heard that it is hard to find now. The BLM is probably hoping it will disappear completely. Judging from your GPS map, it appears that you were able to drive to the end of the old road. How was it?

blackturtle.us: You were down in my territory! The January Jones Mine is located just on the other side of the valley from where you were on the Slate Range side of the valley to be more precise. I haven't visited the January Jones Mine in years. Not a lot to it, but it is a neat place to explore. Probably not a lot left of that road either.

Bruce Canyon LoopThis loop was mostly NOT in Bruce Canyon, but to the North on the way up and to the south on the way down. As is often the case, I saw an owl near Cabin Spring, but did not get my camera out fast enough to get a pic of it! Also observed on this hike were 13 donkeys and one rattlesnake as well as quite a few flowers. PICS: http://www.dvplants.com/SITES/BRUCE/APR17/

Now we just need to get some trail crews in to stabilize your routes so that the rest of us can enjoy adventuruous hikes into the local mountains. Even with good trails I might not be able to handle the hikes anymore, but I know if there were good trails, that more people would get out and explore the back country on foot.

Hall CanyonThis was a ten mile round trip with 3700 feet gain/loss. Two thousand of those feet were gained in the first two miles. Lots of lupine and other flowers too. This route followed an old road that is now closed. I was able to drive it back in 2006 and I drove it a couple times in the 1990s, plus one other time in the early 2000s. It was a spectacular road and it's a pity that it was closed in the name of wilderness preservation.PICS: http://www.dvplants.com/SITES/JAIL/ (See Hall Canyon May 2017)

blackturtle.us: I drove over from Jail Canyon to Hall Canyon several times and I agree that the views were as spectacular as they come. Also there is no doubt that the road is STEEP AS FUCK. There is no way I would have hiked it when I was younger and I would not survive now. Enjoyed the pics!

Hall Canyon: I was able to drive back there a few times in the 1980s and the 1990s. Very nice and very steep road. It's too bad that roads are being closed all around the area. It's supposed to be public land, but only a small percentage of the public is capable of hiking back into somewhere like Hall Canyon. Whether it's conservatives who want to sell our national treasures or liberals who want to make them all off-limits, the rest of us reasonable people are getting screwed out of our national heritage.

deathvalleyjake: You're right that both liberals and conservatives are out to screw the moderate majority. That's what most people don't seem to understand. Analyze the parties issue by issue and both are out to screw the moderate majority, but just in different ways or from different sides of the aisle. Our country is a mess and what Putin said about political schizophrenia is about as accurate as any diagnosis anyone else has come up with.

sandman wrote:deathvalleyjake: You're right that both liberals and conservatives are out to screw the moderate majority. That's what most people don't seem to understand. Analyze the parties issue by issue and both are out to screw the moderate majority, but just in different ways or from different sides of the aisle. Our country is a mess and what Putin said about political schizophrenia is about as accurate as any diagnosis anyone else has come up with.

Call some place paradise... kiss it good bye...Cuz the greedy bastards on the left or the right are going to ruin it for everyone one way or the other and that's not to mention the mindless morons who vandalize, deface, and otherwise cause unnecessary harm.